'ON THE TRACK OF THE QUACK.’

Evening Star, Issue 12882, 3 August 1906, Page 9

'ON THE TRACK OF THE QUACK.’

TO tfHB EDITOR. Sir.—T have on many occasions admired your straight-out hitting, without regard to creed or politics, when a subject of common weal demanded plain speaking, as well ns your marm advocacy of anything of pnLlic importance that appealed to yon as deserving. To my mind, you are to he specially commended for yonr excellent articles under the above headmg. the latest of which appeared in Saturday’s issue, because of the evident fact that the newnpaper Prosr*, next to the quacks themselves, derive the greatest gain from the flourishing business done by the quacks, who could not. exist to the extent they do if it were not for the power of advertising through the medium of the Press Of course, eo long as newspaper proprietors are satisfied that advertisements are couched in terms conformable to the law erf the land', they are not legally called on to become responsible for statements appearing in their advertising columns. That being so. I repeat that yon are de erving of the thanks of the public for taVing up the cudgels on their behalf against these people, who prey on the innocent, the unfortunate, and the unwarv.

Tn the final paragraph of your article you sn-v : " One thine, however, is quite clear: th."t it w the of all, medical men and laymen, the Press a.nd private individuals, to expose snch frauds whenever thev are met with, and at the same time to educate the puVic to distinguish the false from the tme, the quack from the frenuine practitioner ; for it is only by the education of the individual that we can nope to make the existence of the charlatan and quack imipoTsible." S 4 ran,~ely enough, inimediatelv after I had finished reading your article, a-lmost the next thing in your issue that caught mv eye was an advertrreipent from one of these very perrons you had been dealing with—a typical qrack advertisement. Even the border display used was intended to create a false impression, in order to influence " businesv' Of late T have had opportunities of discovering some of the methods adonted bv the concern inserting tiff adive'tifment in dealing (or rather m : sdtfaling) with their correspondents, and T also secured the opinions of two experts upon the device advertised for sale, which the firm guaranteed wou'd cure almost every that flerh is heir to. Tn view of the statement .in your article that it is the duty of private as well as of puh'ic indiv'd'rcaJs to expose frauds whenever they detect them, .1 felt that to remain silent in the face of your invitation would he criminal negligence. Yon say. in the course of your remarks, that it would not be very difficult to point to frauds " much nearer home" than the one speHallv alluded to in your article. Tn accordance with your suggestion. I point to the concern who?e advertisement T have mentioned, and say that I oan produce sufficient evidence to prove to you that by accepting th"ir advertisements you are not only unwittingly fostering the very evil of which you comp'ain, but that you are also doing an in rust ice to the large number of honer-t advertisers who patronise your columns, because of the fVt that discredit is broii eh t upon all advertising through the methods employed by the quack. And that tarings me to your question : "Ts it worth while to try to suppress these quacks, or would it not in the end be better to let the fool puffer for his follv—that is, to allow tho-'o who are foolish enoT3?h not to sre through such transparent frauds to p - iy tho p«na,lty?" You rightly saj' that) each one will answer tin's question in accordance with the bias that he has acquired from his education in matters of political economy. Permit me. therefore, as one who has been afforded aji opportunity of gettintr behind the scenes, to etate a few facts before attempting to offer a solution of the prob'em.

Let me take ore district—that of Dunedin. There are probably thousands upon thousands of prrsorrs who'are suff er ; n.g from some ailment or other. Some have little troubles, which they brood over in secret and magnify sometimes to an alarrrimr extent. Others have tried dor-tors and medicine again and a.gain without much lasting benefit, and hi.il with delight the prospect of a guaranteed cure without the use of drugs. The ailments of others exist only in their own imnsrination, but one drug after another is tried until a real trouble comes along. For the most port these people, whether hvpochondriacs or genuine sufferers, are honest, unsuspicious pople, who would not do an evil act themselves, and are ready to give others credit for honret intentions. They see an advertise-. merit in the daily paper offering them health, strength, and vigor with an earnestness that carries conviction with it. Besides, it is so easy. The advertisement is so plausibly written that even after due allowance is made for the pardonable exagreration of an e-ntlrmastic and triumphant vendor, who baa worked some wonderful cures, much—very much—remains to convince the reader thai there "must be something in it." The prestige of the newspaper in which the ad. appears goes a long way in allaying suspicion of downright fraud. New arguments are continually brought forward, and new testimonials of wonderful cures cited. Can you wonder that, perhaps sceptical at first, a person gradually begins to think that this concern could not go on putting in those big ads. (which he knows cost a lot of money) day after day unless they were curing somebody? The loud talk about the wonderful vii tues of this " cure-all" burns itself into the person's mind. He writes for the "free book." Then the vendor steps in personally. The power behind the Hdvertisiiis: becomes more powerful still ip the form of a personal typewritten letter apparently written direct to the sufferer. If the inquirer gives evidence of being a good mark it may be comparatively easy to squeeze £25 or even £3O out of him. The very fact of the price being so high often gives him confidence. He thinks it must be genuine, and so he falls an easy prey. Tf, on the other hand, he is still unconvinced after the first letter, and writes to know if the device will suit his particular complaint, he is given convincing evidence of cures of similar complaints. Every doubt is conclusively met, and he buys only to find the utter worthlessn ss of the article for which he has paid, perhaps, £25. Another inquirer may not be able to pay the high price, and neglects tn reply to the letter. he is then bonitmtded every week with typewritten letters, and oftentimes literature of a disgusting n-:tu e. In the most cunning manner possible the pr'oe is brought down until it cm es within his reach, or i he is so pestered and b'dgered that .'he gives an order to escape the annov ance o the continual disgusting lettrs arid circulars. The feelings of young men have been so played upon that they have ben on the verge of suicide from fear ana shame. j When the article has been purchased the ! unfortunate victims veqy soon find out that ! they have been duped, that they have parted with their money (often hardly earned and difficult to spare) for an appli- | anoe that is a rank fraud. They have paid ! anything from £2 to £25 for aa article

(bat can be tetuwfactßred and here! at from 2s, 6d to 7s 6d. tt w>ems hardly credible that this should be eu, but this can be proved. Most of the unfortunate buyers at onoe perceive they have been swindled, but prefer not to advertise the fact, and so accept the position with as touch resignation aa they can command. At a very tow estimate one concern him paid an average of about £BOO a year during Ihe past four years for advertising. Multiply this by four for the chief towns of the colony, am allow a fair proportion for the towns and country districts, and you can safely Say that they have been spending about £4,000 annually in advertising alone. Allow even 50 per cent, of their turnover for advertising (a very large proportion even for this class of business), ajid you will see that at a low estimate they must have been despoiling the sick and unfortunate people of New Zealand to the tune of about £B,OOO a year. And I know that that is putting it mildly. Then how to stop this sort of thing! The answer is comparatively easy. The remedy is largely in the hands of the newspapers, and the Post Office officials. The public have * right to ask the newspapers to protect them, by inquiring carefully into tue merits of certain articles and the methods adopted .in exploiting them before accepting the advertisements. Through the medium of the Newspapers Proprietors' Association the public could be sufficiently protected in New Zealand. Many independent jour- j nals in different parts of the world are now taking the precaution of refusing all adver- I tisements which are in any way suspicious or fishy of flavor,,and some are even going the length of guaranteeing the genuineness of all mail order propositions advertised in their columns. The result is that tho advertising columns are more valuable to the advertiser. To my own knowledge at least one great journal in Australia (the 'Sydnev Morning Herald') and two in New Zealand (the 'Christian Outlook' and the 'Red Funnel") re'used to acoep' Advertisement* of the nature referred to. Theyare entitled to ciedn .or Uieir action, it is a pity the leading daily papers in New Zealand cannot see fit- to follow their example. In America the Post Office has lately been given power to confiscate the m:;ils to advertisers after it has been discovered they are fraudulent quacks. I think something might be done in this direction by the Post Office in New Zealard, and commend the idea to the Hon. Mr M'Gowan, who I see was the other day approached in Wellington on the subject of quacks, and promised (alas! those promises!) to see if something could be done to lessen the evil. The Statute Book is at present loaded with laws for the protection of the public against knavery of one kind or another, and it is .foolish that it should he blind to one of the most mischievous forms that seductive arts can assume.—l am, etc., DtTNEDINITB. July 51.